Editorial: Respecting people’s choices

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If you know me, you know one of the things I say almost everyday is simply โ€œlet people live their lives.โ€

I am big on letting people do the things that make them happy as long as it is not hurting anyone else, and that is something I really want to get across in my writing.

If people want to take a year off school to backpack across Asia then they should be allowed to.

If someone needs to take a reduced course load because they cannot handle doing five classes at a time, they should be able to.

We only have one life; therefore, every person should be allowed to live the life that they see fit.

I am a twenty-year-old female currently in her third year at Laurier and I am still mind blown that so many people have things to say about the way that I live my life, specifically surrounding the things that I want to do with my body.

When I was sixteen years old I started to tell people that I could not imagine myself ever having a child or giving birth (I think this was after I heard an intense birthing story).

This announcement seemed to strike a nerve in some people, saying that I am young, and that I will eventually change my mind.

Then people started showing me baby videos and things of that nature trying to get me to think that I will not be living life to the fullest until I have a child.

Just to clarify, I do not have a problem with children or people having children – maybe later in life I will change my mind about having said children.

I just have so much stuff I want to do in my life before I settle down and destroy my body by pushing another living thing out of it.

But as people keep reminding me, I have a biological clock; so if I do everything I want to do before having kids I will miss my chance.

I have also wanted a tattoo since I was sixteen years old as well, but it wasnโ€™t until I turned nineteen that I really knew what tattoo I would want to get. But people keep telling me that I will regret it later in life and it will sag and look ugly the older I get, or the best thing of all to hear about tattoos โ€œyou know its permanent right?โ€

The funniest thing about that comment to me is that people are worried about me regretting a tattoo that is permanent, but a child is also a permanent part of your life as well. One that definetly requires more attention than I am even willing to give most people in my life.

I am the one who must live in my body. Why do so many people care about what I do with it?

If youโ€™re worried I will regret something later in life, please stop worrying cause thatโ€™s on me.

I am making these choices and most of the time they really do not affect your life (unless youโ€™re my parents listening to me rant about how at this current moment in life you will not be getting grandchildren).

I really do not want to live my life worrying about what I might regret in twenty years. That will make me a million times more anxious than I already am.


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Serving the Waterloo campus, The Cord seeks to provide students with relevant, up to date stories. Weโ€™re always interested in having more volunteer writers, photographers and graphic designers.